Garbage in a rural setting

[Loring1]

Hi, I am hoping to get some ideas and guidance on what to do. My listing is in a rural setting and one of the tradeoffs is there is no garbage service. Trash  has to be brought down the hill and taken to one of several green waste centers run by the County. The collection sites are free of charge and are very efficient. It only takes a few moments to drop off the trash once you are there, but the closest to the house is about 10-15 minutes drive from the house.

For a short listing (2-3) days it is no big deal as my cleaning service collects the garbage and drops it off. The issue is large groups and longer days can produce several bags of garbage and it is too much for my cleaner and the trunk of her car... As much as I don't want to , I think I have to put some of the burden on the guest. If you were a guest would you be upset if I required you to dispose of the trash? Would it be a deal breaker in deciding to book? Oh, forgot to mention I am a remote host (out of state) and not able to do this myself.

Ideas I have are:

1. Only have one garbage can and tell guests that if it gets filled they need to take it to a collection site.
2. Tell guests they need to go to collection site every X number of days.
3. Charge a fee per bag of garbage left behind that has to be taken off site. First bag is free.
4. Something else?

[Sandra126]

Number three sounds good to me. But you will have to claim it through the resolution centre and guests might not pay.

[Noel63]

It wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me, but I would factor it into my decision.

[Loring1]

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@Noel63 wrote:

It wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me, but I would factor it into my decision.

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@Noel63would it be a bigger dealfor you personally to do the hauling or the paying?

[Noel63]

@Loring1When I said I would factor it into my decision I meant that I would add the expense to your property when comparing it to another. As @Susan151 has mentioned the extra that you would be charging is such a small expense compared to what people would already be paying. I like the idea of adding the the expense to your cleaning fee and mentioning in your description that people get refunded if they dispose of their own garbage. Better to reward than punish.

For me personally, if on holiday I would prefer to pay than haul.

[Noel63]

You have a beautiful property. It is also more expensive than the average airbnb listing. I have a feeling that the people who stay there could easily afford to pay a little extra to have garbage take away. Just give the options to the guests.

[Susan151]

4. Something else.....

Your cleaning fee is quite high. Your place is quite big. Anyone who doesn't balk at a $220 cleaning fee probably won't balk at a $250 cleaning fee.

I would increase the cleaning fee and then note in your listing that you will refund $x of dollars of that fee if your cleaning crew doesn't need to make a trip to the transfer station. Then you have to trust your cleaning folks to be honest about trips to the transfer station.

[John1080]

@Loring1, we have the same situation here. We have a cleaning service that comes in and takes the trash away when they clean, but for longer stays of a week or more for example, I have struggled with what to do. For liability, safety and privacy, our cleaning staff does not come during a guest's stay. Also, we cannot have any trash put out because of wildlife - we have recently had a bear wandering around.

I have had to suggest and ask two guests to take their trash away half-way through their stays. The landfill is 15 minutes away and on the way to town with a cost $2 per large bag, so it isn't really a huge burden, but I still feel bad about it. Both groups have not complained and have actually thanked me for the suggestion.

The solution we are thinking is a bear/wildlife proof trash can to put outside, although these are pretty expensive. Then, the cleaning staff can empty the can when they come.

[Linda108]

@Loring1  Perhaps under the Air BNB promotion of "live like a local", the guest can be responsible for the trash.  So if you would have to cart the trash to a disposal 15 minutes away or have to secure trash from bears, they have to as well.  Part of the experience.  

[Loring1]

Thanks for all the ideas everyone.

Right now I am leaning towards finding  a local task rabbit type of helper who would just run up and haul it down for me during the longer stays. I'd eat the cost. The one thing I didn't consider is the transfer station is open 0800-1700 and most renters are out on the lake or in Glacier NP for the day. Even if they wanted to take it, they likely wouldn't be able to when it was open without imposing on their activities.

[Lisa723]

Yes, definitely, for this type of listing build the disposal cost into your price and offer guests a discount if they prefer to manage disposal themselves.

[Richard322]

Jill and I have two homestays, one in the cbd and the other 30 km away on our lifestyle block next to our own house.

Both have a weekly official collection (paid through local taxes) for general waste, with a recycling bin and glass bottle crate alternating weekly.

General waste goes into 60 litre official red bags and you can put out as many as you like. That works well because we can buy extra bags as required.

Garbage management has always been the big challenge, because some guests either do  not read my instructions or choose to ignore it, and I end up fishing through the recycling bin to remove illegal stuff, otherwise they may not collect it.

But it’s going to get worse because the local council is introducing radical changes in September:

Red bags will be replaced with a 140 litre wheelie bin COLLECTED ONLY FORTNIGHTLY! This will be a nightmare in the high season when we have high occupancy and large amounts of garbage generated. We had a large group of young Chinese people here recently and I had to put out 5 bags for collection.

I think I will be doing frequent excess garbage runs to the transfer station as I cannot fathom any way of persuading guests to create less waste or take theirs when they leave.

I have a friend who manages 90 homestays as a business and under the new garbage regime she will inevitably have to pay private contractors. She has made a submission to the council but there will be little sympathy as homestays are seen as a gold mine for the privileged and in competition with hotels and motels.